Little League baseball: Los Altos crowned District 44 Junior champion

By Vytas Mazeika

Daily News Staff Writer

Posted:
07/03/2014 10:22:56 PM PDT

Updated:
07/04/2014 12:39:48 AM PDT

No one inside the first base dugout was ready to turn in their uniform. And they won't have to yet after Los Altos-Los Altos Hills won the District 44 Junior All-Star Tournament banner with a 9-6 victory over Sunnyvale National at Purissima Field in Los Altos Hills on Thursday.

Los Altos earned a berth in the Section 5 Tournament, where it lost last year in the championship game.

"Hopefully it will be a little better result this time," Los Altos manager Bobby Glasspole said.

Sunnyvale National avoided eliminated the day before with a 2-1 win, but this time it couldn't silence the Los Altos bats, which struck for four runs in each of the fourth and six innings.

"I think they just had a little bit of jitters before the first game," Glasspole said. "They definitely loosened up and were ready to go today,"

There were tense moments at the end as Sunnyvale National brought the potential tying run to the plate with one out in the bottom of the seventh. That's when Glasspole removed starting pitcher Cobi Dougherty and inserted Austin Townsend.

"Austin and Cobi are our 1A and 1B," Glasspole said. "I'm confident in both of them and I was confident in the team in general."

Townsend went to work and induced a pop-up that he tracked down in front of home plate for the second out.

"Obviously there's some nerves behind it when you have to pick it up for your team and come up with the save," Townsend said. "But you just have to do what you need to do and I got it done."

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The next batter popped up to third base, where Dougherty was moved after leaving the mound.

"I thought I was going to miss it," Dougherty said. "I was shocked that it came to me. I was so unprepared for it. It had some backspin and it kept going, going. When it hit my glove it came out and I got it with my bare hands, barely."

Los Altos trailed 1-0 after three innings before putting together a four-run rally that began with a single by No. 3 hitter Bo Fick, who scored three runs. A walk and a bunt single loaded the bases for Keenan Hanley, who drew a walk to tie the game.

With two outs, Townsend ripped a single to left that drove in a pair and Dougherty helped his own cause with an RBI double to left-center for a 4-1 lead.

"Of course, when any team can get some runs in it just boosts the whole team and your spirits are up," Townsend said. "You can go make plays on defense and I think it was the exact thing that we needed to win."

Los Altos struck again in the top of the fifth as George Fisher delivered a two-out single to left that drove in Fick to make it 5-1.

But just when it looked as if the rout was on, Sunnyvale National scored a run on an infield hit and Alonzo Vergara crushed a two-run homer in the bottom of the fifth to cut the deficit to 5-4.

Undaunted, the offense came through again for Los Altos as the first six batters reached safely in the top of the sixth, with Fick ripping a grounder past the third baseman for a two-run single. Matt May's RBI single made it 8-4 and Hanley drew another bases-loaded walk to cap the four-run rally.

With their ace on the mound, that was enough run support for Los Altos as Dougherty went 6 1/3 innings, scattering eight hits while walking two and striking out four.

"We just wanted him to throw it over the plate, throw strikes," Glasspole said. "We know we have a good defense to make plays and he did even better than we expected."

"I was kind of confident this morning coming into this game," Dougherty said. "I thought I could throw strikes and I think I did. My curveball, usually it's not consistent sometimes, but today I think it was at its finest and I think it really helped me today."